Another Look

Oh, what a night!

Talk about bittersweet. The great Bernie Williams comes back with a bang, his 11th career grand slam lifting the once again mighty New York Yankees back above .500 with their ninth straight victory. Bernie may not be what he used to be, but, to use those words of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, who in the closing stanza of Ulysses said it best:
"Tho much is taken, much abides; and tho'
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield."

The young 'uns will understand someday. For us older folk, there is inspiration here. As Tennyson understood, "...you and I are old;/Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;/Death closes all: but something ere the end,/Some work of noble note, may yet be done,/Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods."

Last night, Ray Romano and his hit comedy Everybody Loves Raymond closed all. It left on the same note that sustained it for the past decade - love and family. It was a noble note, filled with grace. Underappreciated for so long, this charming comedy succeeded because of what it was - a slightly distorted mirror in which we could all recognize our own families and the love sustaining us. It was the mirror Cosby (Ray certainly wasn't the all-knowing father, although both sitcom husbands had wives smarter than they and willing and able to puncture their pretensions - much like my own wife) and in so many ways, the same. We'll miss Raymond. We like you, Ray!

We liked Newsweek. For a long time, it has had the best reporting of the newsweeklies. Back when Clinton was in power, they were hated for the Linda Tripp/Monica Lewinsky coverage (with an assist from Matt Drudge, who forced it out of the closet). Christopher Dickey has had some of the most insightful coverage of Iraq. The New York Times, whose coverage has veered from painful sycophancy during the run-up and in the early stages of the war to an overly belligerent nothing's-going-right afterwards could learn from reading his dispatches. Reporting like this on that disaster in the making, John Bolton, made it a must read. Now all that matters less than a piece of incredibly sloppy reporting - a single-sourced, unconfirmed, bound to be inflammatory item - and even worse editing that allowed it to get through. It will be interesting to see what Newsweek reporters have learned. I would hope humility, but not becoming gun shy. In other words, I hope they learn the lesson they've implicitly been trying to share with America about Iraq: Causing people to die based on recklessly bad intelligence is unforgivable, no matter the motivation.

Not that they're asking, but the advice I'd give Newsweek staffers is the same I'd have given to Rumsfeld or Bush. They didn't ask either, but nobody asked Tennyson, yet we listen: "Come, my friends/'Tis not too late to seek a newer world."

Let's just hope this is not a world where we'll really have to pay $49.95 to read the New York Times's op-ed page. If they're going to charge, at least add some more compelling commentary to join Frank Rich's. As the debates over the futures of conservativism and liberalism both heat up, how about infusing the page with some authentic voices from each side? Pat Buchanan and Eric Alterman - now that would be worth the money!

posted by Andy Mais @ 6:50 AM